Random Windows 8 Bluescreen on Cold Boot

[protomog]

So, here's the thing, I built my computer back in January or so (I got some help from here, as well, thank you for that). When I first built my computer, everything seemed to be working fine. Here's where the weird thing starts off. I started getting blue screens. Every time, it was a random one and it only occurred during cold boot. Otherwise, the system would boot fine. I tested my memory with Memtest, did some checks on my harddrive, made sure my RAM voltages and other things were correct, checked my install, did a few tests on my mobo; everything came up just fine, no issues. I reinstalled Windows 8 just to see if that would some how fix it; same problem. Since the blue screen was random each time, I had no idea what was wrong. So, instead, I tried out Windows 7. No bluescreens at all. None. Been using it since then flawlessly. That said, this issue has been bothering me in the back of my head and I was wondering if somebody might have a probable cause, partially because, well, I actually really like Windows 8 and I wouldn't mind using it as my main OS. I also have Linux installed, but there was nothing in logs to indicate anything wrong there.

Current Specs:

Unfortunately, I have none of the original dumps, but I noticed this was published by Microsoft: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2818604 . Would this make it work under Windows 8?

 

[protomog]

Okay, so, here's an even weirder thing. Everything has been working fine until these last few days (with Win7). I had a bluescreen (unfortunately, because I was stupid, I didn't save that dump) at the login screen and a crash right before the login screen that produced no error (computer just restarted) at another day. Before, when I'd get the blue screen in 8, it always happened at the login screen. I'm not quite sure what that means. Just recently, though, while messing around, I heard a weird noise. I went to open HWMonitor, but I got a not found error and the noise (kind of like humming?) got louder. In a panic, thinking I had a virus (last laptop HDD died from one), I shut down my computer, restarted in safe mode, and started running MalwareBytes scan. The scan is still running now. After I first installed Windows 7, I got a crash like the one above (no error, just crash, restart, nothing to see for logs or anything), but I ignored it and it went away. I tested my HDD, my RAM, updated my BIOS, reseated everything. Nothing happened again, and there were no errors. Now I'm starting to worry, though, considering my recent errors. My best guess is that it's something with the video card (last bluescreen, I remember, could be caused by GPU drivers), something wrong with my HDD, or something with my RAM. I'm not really sure how to test my GPU since I don't have another one I can put in its place to find out.

EDIT: Also, I live in a pretty cold area and like things cold. It doesn't warm up here until late June, at least. As a result, I keep my computer room at around 50-65 F. Could that be too cold for my computer? Also, prior to the weird sound tonight, I was playing a few intensive games and nothing seemed amiss.

EDITx2: Malwarebytes scan came up clean. Now running scan with MSE (also in safe mode)

 

[protomog]

Alright, so my MSE and MalwareBytes scans came up clean. PC Wizard Benches passes. Did a perfmon /report; everything came up alright. No critical issues in event viewer that could lead to a problem. Alright. Fine.

So now I tried to run Windows Memory Diagnostic (IIRC, that's what it's called; going off the top of my head, but it's included in Windows). Go to restart now, and find out that the memory tool is missing (no /boot folder or something?). Tells me to run automatic repair. Only disk I have immediately lying around is a Windows 8 install disk. Try it out; says that automatic repair can't fix my PC. I'm going to see if I can find this old Windows 7 repair disk I have lying around somewhere, but this somewhat suspicious to me.

EDIT: NOPE. 0xc0000428 cannot be verified for memtest when trying to reboot after selecting Memory Diagnostic in windows.

EDITx2: Can't find my Windows 7 Pro disk either, unfortunately. So I can't run a boot repair to fix it. All I have lying around is a Windows 7 Repair disk (doesn't contain any installation files, though) and a Windows 7 Install Disk from my laptop. If I want to fix this boot, I might have to install Windows 8, but I don't want to be stuck with the cold boot issue listed in this thread, either.

 

[protomog]

I think it's just a slightly botched install from when I tried installing Linux (which, for some reason, really hates the hardware in my new build. Beyond that, Windows 7 still boots fine. I'm going to try a long test with SeaGate SeaTools for DOS and see if anything comes up.

Also, this doesn't seem to be strictly a Windows 8 issue anymore, so, if necessary, this can be moved to a more appropriate section of the forums.

EDIT: Full Scan from SeaGate SeaTools for DOS shows nothing at all. Everything came out just fine. Guess I'll test my memory. While I can't run the Memory Diagnostics in Windows itself, I still have a Memtest86+ CD sitting around. I'll let that run for two or three hours and see if anything comes up. If not, well, I don't really know where to go from there.

Any suggestion would be helpful.

 

[protomog]

So, mind you all this is my first build. I'm not too savvy yet, but I'm learning. Now, I have Mushkin Blackline 996995 RAM and a 970A-DS3. Now, my DS3, by default, does not detect the RAM correctly. Sets it to something like 11-11-11-28 @ 1600 MHz (RAM default is 9-9-9-24 @1600 MHz). Now, I set this manually myself, but there's about 23000000 different settings for RAM when you go to edit them. Not knowing what they do, I left them on auto. Well, there's this little setting in my MOBO called "XMP". Given its name and my lack of knowledge, I assumed to leave it off. After doing a bit of research, I find out it auto-sets RAM to the manufacturers' default. So, I reset my board's settings (just in case I edited something else), turn on XMP, and, sure enough, it gets my RAM's settings correct. That said, it also set those other misc. settings I didn't know about to different values, as well. I wonder if my manual settings weren't good enough and that was the cause of my cold boot crashes in Win8. I'm going to leave memtest running while I sleep to make sure XMP is running alright, but, from what I saw in the BIOS and CPU-Z, things seem to be set right.

Anyone have an idea?

EDIT: Apparently XMP isn't suppose to be on AMD boards, but... It's there. Right there in the memory settings. It seems to work. I wonder if it's another memory profile or something that AMD does support, but they just put XMP for people familiar with it? I don't know.

EDIT: XMP is just AMP. They call it XMP in the memory settings for some reason, though. Cool.